French police officers investigating Google as part of a tax-fraud probe had to work completely offline and were even banned from uttering the company's name, in order not to alert the global internet giant.

Police renamed Google 'Tulip' during the investigation and to ensure they stayed completely under the radar, the team only used computers for word processing software.

Around 100 police officers, five magistrates, 25 computer experts and about 100 tax officials entered Google's Paris offices at dawn last Tuesday as part of a probe into 'aggravated tax fraud' and money laundering.

French investigators 'never uttered the word "Google"' during the year-long investigation and avoided the Internet ahead of last week's dawn raid on the internet giant's Paris offices (pictured)

'We decided to never utter the word "Google", to give the firm another name, and we worked on this case fully offline for nearly a year,' Eliane Houlette, the financial prosecutor,told French radio according to Bloomberg.

'We worked with computers, but pretty much only with word processing. The name "Tulip" came up because the mother ship was registered in the Netherlands.'

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Ms Houlette added that analysis of data seized by investigators in last week's raid could possibly take years.

'We need to analyse (the data) ... (it will take) months, I hope that it won't be several years, but we are very limited in resources'.

Google, which said it is complying fully with French law, is accused of owing the French government £1.2billion in unpaid taxes.

Probe: Police officers pictured leaving the Paris offices of Google after the dawn-raid as part of a tax fraud investigation last week

Last week's raid was part of EU officials' attempt at cracking down on big businesses avoiding tax, with companies such as Apple, Amazon, Fiat and Starbucks in the firing line.

'We respect French legislation and are fully cooperating with the authorities to answer their questions,' a Google spokeswoman said on Tuesday.

A source close to the matter said in February that French authorities believe the Californian group owed €1.6 billion in back taxes.

Its European operations are headquartered in Ireland, which has some of the lowest corporate tax rates in Europe.

The PNF said the probe, launched in June 2015, aimed to 'check' whether Google Ireland Limited, 'by not declaring part of its activity carried out on French territory... has failed in its tax obligations, notably in terms of company tax and value-added tax'.

Google France received a 'notification' of the investigation back in March 2014, which did not give any precise figures.

Italy has demanded more than €200million from Google, which is accused of perpetrating tax fraud there for years.

It has been raided by French authorities before, in June 2011, during an investigation into transfers to its Irish headquarters.

HOW GOOGLE FUNNELS ITS MONEY VIA A WEB OF COMPANIES TO SHRINK ITS TAX BILL

Web: This is Google's complicated web of holding companies that allows the web giant to reduce its international tax bill. Google US has set up two Irish companies, one of which is based in Bermuda, with a middle company in the Netherlands. The network allows revenue from around the world to be sent back to Bermuda via Ireland and Holland, with their generous tax rates, allowing Google to reduce its tax bill

Google manages to reduce its tax bill by using a set of subsidiary companies across the globe.